the core of all life is a limitless chest of tales

How to Start by rthwrms

for the times when you really truly want to do something, but find resistance or that starting feels impossible

most helpful action to get into a task is: look at it options include: review what you've already done open the tab on screen blur your eyes at first if that helps fullscreen the image browse or skim relevant texts let your gaze move around how it will JUST...LOOK!!!

Your brain has resistance towards starting the particular project in the way that you've previously conceived of it. Instead of fighting that resistance, try to change your approach to starting your work. Ie, start with colored pencils on a piece you were doing in gouache, include a new stitch in a crochet piece, Step one: identify the process Step two: identify places where something new can be included Step three: brainstorm new options to fill these spots Step four: select one or more options and try your piece from this new angle

encourage yourself by asking questions start with: "What am I actually trying to do right now?" then try: "What would this look like if it were more fun?" "How would I do it if anything was possible?"

divide into discrete tasks make the closest or shiniest one literally as small & specific as freaking possible

image text: I BELIEVE IN YOU screenshot text: The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper. W.B. Yeats (via billowy)

there is a window now there is a door

Leaning really hard into something that makes you go "this is the most me thing ever" helps that specific type of brainweird quite a bit! But maybe you don't know what the most you thing ever is. You are not alone! I get depressed and forget every interest I have. 100% understand that.

When this happens, it helps to remind yourself what you like and enjoy. So what do you do? Well for me, it helps to think about 1. Things I used to enjoy and 2. Things my friends Know Me For.

Like I've been feeling not myself lately and I haven't really knit or created much this month at all. But I'm the Makes Things Guy. I like making things and many of my friends not only know me as someone who makes things but a lot of my friendships specifically come from communities of People Who Make Things.

So I forced myself to pick up an old project, and that helped a bit. But what really helped was coming up with a project that combined my interests (leather jackets, art, and teapots) for me to look forward to and get really into planning for! The most ME I've felt in weeks has been the last hour I've spent planning on painting a famous fine China design on the back of my leather trenchcoat. Because not ONLY am I the Makes Things Guy, I am also The Teapot Guy. I finally feel like myself again.

- Humphrey Carpenter's J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

During a couple hours on this particular day, Tolkien took Frodo across the Dead Marshes to the gates of Mordor, then mowed the lawn.

"I feel dead inside all the time and nothing helps!" - character who does like, regular introspective thinking and is aware of the concept of mental health.

"Leave me the fuck alone I'll be fine once I get over my stupid shit." - repressed character.

@/oatmilkmakeup - does lots of creative makeup looks leaning goth and feminine. Her energy is very calm.

@/philosophay - queer curly haired lady with an alternative sense of style that's very 80s. fun and creative looks are her thing.

@/cloveroom - trans woman that likes a soft glam look. lots of longform videos consisting of tutorials, grwms, reviews, and more.

@/monica.raviii - she is a self proclaimed Fairy Brown Mother of makeup and has many "no bs" makeup reviews. usually she does a soft glam but she's said she's been wanting to get back into doing creative looks.

@/GeniusGirlAlert - I love her creativity, as she uses her art school knowledge when applying makeup, although admittedly she sometimes does those "aesthetic" makeup recreations. nothing so insidious as the mob wife shit but still... it doesn't sit right with me. so. ¯⁠\⁠(⁠°⁠_⁠o⁠)⁠/⁠¯ love her other stuff tho

@/OliviaOlfactory - long form videos are mostly fragrance reviews but she has a lot of short form makeup videos. I particularly enjoy her recently ended "cheap ass makeup" series where she reviewed drugstore and similarly inexpensive makeup brands.

@/theoliviasaurusrex - I enjoy her quiet spoken narration though I must admit I mostly watch her videos because I have a similar complexion to her. she does makeup tutorials and reviews and tbh I just like to see how the products look on my skin lol

@/Makeupbynikkilarose - mostly long form reviews, first impressions, & grwms. she's an mua that has a soft spot for luxury makeup and the majority of her viewers are older women with mature skin (neither of which cater to me). she does mostly neutral soft glam looks but I come back to her for her authenticity.

@/jazlmao - does a lot of universally flattering tutorials for neutral and cool skin undertones and reviews with some colorful and fun makeup every once in a while. she's also an artist and likes using color theory in makeup

“I saw Claudia as a woman in a child’s body,” says Rice. “There are women who are eternally called girls - cute, sweet, adorable pinchable, and soft- when in fact they have a strong mind that’s very threatening” - The Vampire Companion

‘Let tears gather in your eyes. You haven’t tears enough for what you’ve done to me. (...) Monsters! To give me immortality in this hopeless guise. - Claudia, Interview with the Vampire

Claudia is brilliant and dangerous. Yet her fathers treat her as a "doll", a child. Part of her character arc is fueled by rage, caused by this constant paternalism.

Of course, Lestat gave me a doll as usual, the replica of me, which as always wears a duplicate of my newest dress. (...) And what should I do with it? Play with it as if I were really a child? "Is there a message here, my beloved father?" I asked him this evening. "That I shall be a doll forever myself?" - Claudia's Diary, The Queen of the Damned

There is a great interview in which Anne talks about the rage in the character of Claudia, I'll try to make a gifset of it for this week ^^.

Still, it is wild to see some interviews (old interviews) of a bestselling author, in which the host asks things like: "what does your husband think about you writing "x"?".

IWTV wasn't published until 1976.

Women in the United States were not legally allowed to have a credit card or get a home loan in their own name, without their husband's approval, until 1974. Laws were just being put into place regarding discriminating against women in hiring and discriminating in pay for women. Most women still couldn't get birth control without their husband's approval. There was no such thing as no fault divorce, or even the concept of marital rape.

While there was no law against a woman getting a driver's license on her own, in the 60s and 70s it could still depend on where you lived and who was working the DMV that day. Anne herself did not have a driver's license and did not drive because Stan would not permit her to drive.

I wish I could remember the exact interview, because she did talk extensively about how in her early days of writing their mutual friends would just refer to her as 'Stan's wife'. 'Stan's wife' wrote a book. 'Stan's wife' is getting published. 'Stan, how is your wife getting on with her book?' being asked while she's in the room. No matter how libertine we view the 1970s, socially women still weren't really looked at outside their roles as wives.